More and More
by lilyy.flowerr
Summary: More and more people are discovering Danny's secret, more and more ghosts are escaping, and the ghosts are becoming more and more dangerous. And it all started with a doctor's appointment...
1. The Doctor's Appointment

Danny sat impatiently on the doctors office exam table. He drummed his fingers on his knees and sighed, eager to get his fifteen year old check-up over and done with. He sighed again and cast a glance at the plain, black rimmed clock mounted on the wall. It had been sixteen minutes science the perky nurse dressed in bright purple scrubs had told Danny the doctor would be with him shortly.

"You know," Danny said to his mother who sat in a worn chair in the corner of the room reading an out of date magazine. "'The doctor will be with you shortly' is probably the most frequently told lie in America."

Maddie gave her son a half smile. "They're busy today."

"They're always busy," Danny deadpanned.

Maddie let out an exasperated sigh. "Danny-" But she was cut short by the door (finally) opening up to reveal a tall, average looking man with brown hair, green eyes, and ears that stuck out just a little too far; Danny's doctor.

"Daniel, Madelyn, good to see you," he said with a smile as he washed his hands. "It's been a while." It had been- the last time Danny had been to the doctors was his fourteen year old check-up. (Minus the time ghost bugs infected everyone at Casper, but that had been a ghost hospital, not his regular doctors office, so Danny decided to overlook that.)

"Good to see you, too, Doctor Hart," Maddie said politely. Danny, however, stayed quiet and let out another long sigh.

"Alright, Daniel, we're just going to start with the basics: I'll listen to your heart, take your blood pressure, take your temperature, look in your eyes and nose."

Danny tensed and his eyes widened. "You can't do that!" he blurted. It hadn't occurred to him before that he hadn't been to the doctors since he acquired his ghost powers. His temperature and maybe even heartbeat or blood pressure were sure to be drastically different from the last time he was here; especially temperature.

"Why not?" Maddie asked, furrowing her eyebrows together in confusion. Danny was never one to get nervous around doctors- that was Tucker's job.

"I-I," Danny stuttered, trying desperately to think of an excuse. "I feel really cold right now, so I don't think my temperature will be accurate," he finished lamely. In an attempt to make it more convincing, he crossed his arms and faked a shiver.

"You were fine a minute ago..." Maddie stated, not sure what her son was playing at.

Doctor Hart raised an eyebrow at the boy's antics and turned toward his mother. "Mrs. Fenton," he addressed. "Have there been any changes or oddities in Daniel's behavior recently?"

Maddie bit her lip. "Actually, he's been awfully tired for a while now. His teachers have even called home a few times to complain about him falling asleep in class a couple times."

Doctor Hart smiled kindly at her. "Well, I'll just schedule for Daniel to have a quick blood test once we're done here to see if it's anything that needs medical attention, or if he's just been up late playing video games."

Danny tensed and stopped his fake-shivering. If the doctors took his blood, they would see his blood. And his blood had ectoplasm in it. "No! No blood tests!" he shouted.

Doctor Hart laughed lightheartedly, mistaking Danny's jitters to be caused by the needle rather than the blood. "Don't worry, son, it doesn't hurt. Some people have even say it hurts less than shots do." Danny's mind was frantically thinking of an excuse to get out of here, wishing that these problems had dawned on him before he came to the doctors.

"I'm..." Danny started, but he didn't know what to say. Needle intolerant? Allergic to blood? Every excuse he came up with was automatically shot down and categorized as stupid.

"Alright, Daniel. Let's get started," Doctor Hart said. His tone of voice was stern, and left no room for argument. Danny shot Maddie a worried look, hoping his mom would step in and reschedule his doctor's appointment so he could have some time to talk to Sam, Tucker, and Jazz about a solution. However, Maddie just cocked her head to the side and gave him a bewildered expression.

Doctor Hart took his stethoscope from around his neck and placed the nob in his ears. He reached up Danny's shirt and rested the end of the stethoscope on Danny's heart. "Take a deep breath in," Doctor Hart instructed, and Danny, seeing no way to escape this check-up, obeyed.

"And let it out," the doctor continued. Danny exhaled, and Doctor Hart pulled the stethoscope away, and returned it to its standard home around the doctor's neck.

"A little slower than the average heart rate for boys your age, but the heart beats slower if you exercise a lot. Do you play any sports?"

Danny looked at his mother, and saw that her focus was directed at the crinkled magazine resting on her lap, rather than at Danny. "I run a lot," Danny lied, looking once more at his mom to make sure she didn't here his lie.

Doctor Hart nodded and moved on.

The rest of the check-up went rather smoothly. Maddie stayed absorbed in her magazine, giving Danny the freedom to cover up any abnormalities with little white lies that wouldn't have gone unnoticed by Maddie had she been paying attention. Doctor Hart was also rather gullible and believed almost anything Danny told him. As far as Doctor Hart knew, Danny was an average teenage boy who ran track, and got cold often because he never got enough sleep due to his vigorous study habits. (Lucky for Danny, his on-the-spot lie about no sleep leading to low body temperature was an actual, true medical fact.)

By the end of the check-up, Danny felt quite triumphant. Tucker would be proud. Sam on the other hand would probably scold him for lying to a doctor, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

"Well, Daniel, looks like we're all done here," Doctor Hart said with a pointed, one time nod. Danny's heart leaped; he was relieved he had made it through this check-up with his secret still in tact. Unfortunately, Doctor Hart kept talking. "I'll just send you on over to the blood lab. They'll take your blood, and prescribe you any medication if there are medical issues that need tending to."

Danny's heart deflated. It was like he had been floating, then someone turned the gravity back on. He'd been so preoccupied with the matter at hand, he had forgot to think of an excuse for the blood test.

"Although, after talking with you it seems your sleepiness is because of those study habits of yours," Doctor Hart continued. Maddie, who had put he magazine away after hearing Danny was finished, looked confused- Her son was never one to study. In fact, he had frequently grumbled about his dislike for school and homework.

"Good luck at your next track competition," Doctor Hart finished with a smile, unaware he was shredding Danny's accomplishments to pieces. Danny cringed. Would he just shut up all ready? Maddie looked even more confused than before.

Doctor Hart, purely oblivious to the confusion and horror he's causing for each of the respective Fentons in the room, smiled kindly at each in turn, then walked out of the room.

"Tra-?" Maddie started. But before she could even finish the word, Danny jumped down from the examination table, declaring it time to start walking toward the blood lab. Maddie just shrugged and followed her son out of the room. Over the past year, she had become accustomed to her son's (and occasionally daughter's) odd behavior.

The two made there way to the blood lab, both lost in their own thought. Maddie, thoughts of confusion and bewilderment, Danny, thoughts of worry and apprehension.

_How in the world_, Danny wondered, _am I going to get out of this._

Soon, they were in the waiting area for the blood lab. Minutes passed fleetingly, and Danny still had no idea how to explain why he could not be subject to a blood test.

After fifteen minutes of waiting, he knew he had little to no time left, and he decided to go with an old favorite. "I have to go to the bathroom," he announced.

"Okay but hurry back," Maddie said with a kind smile. Danny smiled back, then left the room as fast as he could without running.

As he turned the corner, he heard a nurse call his name, and his mother politely tell her he had just left for the restroom.

When Danny arrived at the men's room, he went in and immediately whipped out his phone to make a three way call to Tucker and Sam.

"Help," Danny said curtly when the two had answered.

"Ghost?" Sam asked. "Where are you? We're on our way."

Danny shook is head even though he knew neither one could see him. "No ghost," he told them. "I'm at the doctor's."

"Th-the d-doctors?" Tucker squeaked.

Danny rolled is eyes and smiled slightly. "Relax, Tuck, I don't need you to come here." Tucker let out a sigh of relief. "I need ideas."

"Ideas?" Sam inquired.

After a quick scan of the bathroom to make sure it was empty, Danny quickly explained about the check-up, and the lies, and his mom, and the blood test. As expected, his getting away with lying to the doctor's earned him a "Way to go, man!" from Tucker, and a disapproving "Danny..." from Sam. The blood test, however, resulted in the same reaction from both his friends: A nervous gulp.

"Alright so here's what you'll do," Sam started. "Try..." Silence.

Danny's eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Sam?" he asked. "Sam?" He pulled his phone away from is ear and glanced at the screen. It had ran out of battery. Was the universe trying to ruin his chances at keeping his secret?

Panicking, and not knowing what to do next, Danny let the familiar rings of light travel up and over his body and transform him into his ghost self. Biting his lip and running his options through his head one more frantic time, he made his decision. He would probably get grounded, but he was without another idea. He went intangible and invisible, then flew through the ceiling, away from the doctors, and away from that dreaded blood test.


	2. Secrets Come Forth

Danny flew directly to his house. He phased through the roof, straight into his room, transformed back into his human form, then plugged his phone in to charge. He then sat down in his desk chair and logged onto video chat. He clicked on Sam's name, and bounced his knee up and down nervously as the call connected.

The screen lit up and shone with a pixeley image of Sam. "Sorry, my phone died. I flew home, but my mom still thinks I'm in the bathroom," he explained, getting right to the point. "So what were you going to say?"

Sam bit her lip and gave Danny a worried smile. "My plan was kind of the same as yours: Go invisible and fly home."

Danny groaned. "If I ditch the blood test thing my mom is going to kill me."

"Yeah, but what are you going to tell them? That you needle-intolerant? That your allergic to blood." Despite the situation, Danny smiled somewhat; he had been thinking the same thing. "And if you do let them take your blood," Sam continued, "how in the world are you going to explain the fact that half of it is ectoplasm?"

Danny nodded, not seeing another way around this situation either. After a brief awkward silence, Danny looked at Sam and smiled. "Well," he began. "Since I've got you here, how would you like to tell me the answers to the math homework?"

"Bye, Danny," Sam said, shaking her head, but laughing all the same. She clicked the "hang up" button, and the image of Sam disappeared from Danny's computer screen, replaced with the home page of the video chat app.

Danny frowned slightly, then reached for his backpack, deciding to get a jump on this weekend's homework so Saturday and Sunday could be filled with kicking back and kicking ghost butt.

He was able to finish the assignment for Lancer's class as well as half his math homework when his phone started ringing. He peered at the screen, and sure enough, the caller ID read "Mom". With a deep breath, he detached the phone from its charger, and answered the call.

"Hello?" he answered lamely, knowing he was about to be grounded into the next century.

"Danny, where are you?" his mother demanded. "It's been almost twenty minutes since you left for the bathroom, and when I asked a man to peek inside the bathroom to see if you were okay, he said there was no one in there." She paused, and then repeated her previous question. "_Where are you?_"

Danny choked on his words for a while before squeaking out a quiet "Home?"

"What?" Maddie shrieked. "First of all, why in the world are you at home when you should be at the doctor's, and second of all, if your going to leave, the _least_ you could so is tell me that."

When Danny said nothing, Maddie tried asking again in a less wordier matter. "Why are you at home?" She sounded rather agitated.

"Because I can't do the blood test thingy," Danny replied.

Maddie let out an exasperated breath. "And why not?"

Danny frowned and scuffed the floor with the toe of his shoe. "Because..." was his brilliant reply.

"Because?" Maddie inquired. "You know what, we'll discuss this when I get home. I'm on my way." And with that, the line went dead.

Great. Just great. Danny felt like he was asking himself the same question over and over, and was hitting a dead end each time. And really, that was what he was doing.

His mom was home too quickly for his liking. "Danny!" she called. Danny ditched the math homework he had been working on, or rather staring blankly at while he tried to decide what to tell his mother, and made his way downstairs.

When he arrived at the foot of the stairs, he was greeted by his mother, her arms crossed, and a scowl dominating her face. "Alright, Danny," she said, her voice strong. "I want answers."

Danny opened his mouth to speak, but his mom stopped him with a raised hand. "No, Danny," she said. Danny scrunched his eyebrows together, not quite sure what Maddie meant: He hadn't even said anything yet. "I don't want you to tell me it's okay when it's so obviously not. What was that back at the doctor's office, and why in the world did you leave in the middle of your appointment?"

Danny cast his gaze toward the ground. "I can't tell you," he said, cringing at how pathetic and childish the excuse was.

"Why?" Maddie asked.

"Because..."

Maddie pinched the bridge of her nose. "Danny, we're going in circles."

This was it. Danny knew he couldn't keep it up any longer. He was able to keep up the charade for quite a while, but his freak out at the doctor's office had been a dead give away that something was wrong. This was it.

Danny moved his gaze upward to look at his mother, but seeing the pained look on her face, a look of helplessness and confusion, he looked right back down at the ground. This was it.

He took a deep breath, then, eyes still locked on the toe of his shoe, he let the bright rings of light travel over his body, changing his every day clothes into a black and white jumpsuit, changing his natural dark hair and baby blue eyes to the paranormal shades of white and ecto-green.

He moved his head once more to look at his mom. They stared at each other for a while. The edges of Danny's mouth tugged down at the corners, forming a sort of half frown. Maddie's mouth hung open loosely in surprise.

Though they had only been there less than a minute, Danny could bare the silence no longer. "Mom?" he asked. Maddie blinked rapidly, but said nothing.

"I-" Danny started. Then, thinking it might be easier for his mom to talk to Fenton rather than Phantom, he changed back before continuing. "I'm sorry..."

"Danny," Maddie whispered, covering her mouth with her hand. "Wha-? How?"

Danny then went on to tell the story of how he had entered the Fenton Portal, turned it on by accident, and gotten the shock of a lifetime (both literally and figuratively). "Our theory is that when I was shocked with that much ecto-energy, my DNA became infused with ectoplasm," he finished.

"Our?" Maddie asked. "Who else knows?" With a sheepish smile Danny recited the short list of those who knew his secret.

"Why didn't you tell your father and I?" Maddie asked him quietly.

"I tried a couple times. But something always interrupted us. By the time I decided to start using my powers to fight ghosts, everything was going so smoothly with just Sam, Tucker, and I knowing. Then, when Danny Phantom became famous, you and Dad really hated him- er, me... When Jazz found out, she started covering for me, which made things a lot easier, and..." Danny trailed off, not sure what to say next, and hoping his mom understood. As an after thought, he hastily added, "And that time when I shot at you, I thought you were overshadowed; I never meant to hurt you!"

Maddie smiled at her son. Though Danny wasn't sure wether it was a happy smile, or a sad smile, it was a smile nonetheless, and that was enough for Danny.

"I just can't believe we never noticed..." Maddie said timidly. Now that she knew, she couldn't help but see similarities between her son and the Amity Park's local hero. Even their names: Phantom, Fenton. How did she and Jack not notice before?

"I'm sorry," Maddie whispered.

Danny's expression became confused. "Sorry?" he asked.

"We shot at you. Your father and I said all that horrible stuff about you _to you_. I'm so, so sorry, Danny." As Maddie spoke, she gently squeezed Danny's shoulder. As the last word escaped her lips, she pulled Danny close to her, enclosing him in a loving hug.

When they pulled apart (or rather when Danny pulled away from his mother) the boy shrugged. "You thought I was just some ghost, and you ghost _hunters_. You were just doing your job."

The pair stayed quiet for a while until Danny felt the need to ask a question that had been at the tip of his mind since he decided to tell his mom his biggest, best-kept secret. "So are things going to be... Different?" he asked, using "different" for lack of a better word. He wanted to use better, or easier, but he wasn't sure if it was an appropriate situation for either of those words.

Maddie nodded. "I don't see I they can't be," she said. "I guess we'll try to lighten you load of chores." At this Danny smiled. "Curfew stays at ten o'clock," she continued, raining slightly on Danny's parade. "But consequences for being late will be little to none if you're late because of a ghost attack." And Danny's smile returned. "And we'll have to tell your father about this."

Danny nodded. Telling his father now that his mother knew was a given, and the perks of his parents knowing would make life a whole lot easier. Just one more crucial question: "So I can keep ghost fighting?" he asked. He respected and loved his mother more than he could express, but if his mother wanted to 'save him from the dangers of ghost hunting', he would just have to continue his duties behind her back.

Much to Danny's relief, though, Maddie replied with a surprised "Of course!" sounding as if she was confused as to why he even had to ask. "Your father and I are ghost hunters. It would be quite hypocritical to ban your ghost hunting, and continue our own."

Danny smiled; so far, things were going his way.

But then, of course, right as he thought that, the front door opened, and Jack stepped through the doorway. _Oh goody_, Danny thought dryly. _Time to reveal myself to my dad. _


	3. And Now They Know

Jack entered the house and smiled when he saw Danny and Maddie at the foot of the stairs. He greeted them, then announced that he had a great idea for a new ghost hunting weapon, and that he would be in the lab if they needed him. Danny watched him trot away, leaving to work on a new invention.

He turned to look at Maddie who was staring at him intently, as if waiting for him to call out to his dad and idly mention he was half ghost. Danny shook his head. "I'm not telling him down there," he stated. Maddie tilted her head to the side, silently asking why. "I'll tell him," he continued. "But not while he's surrounded by dozens of weapons that can rip me apart molecule by molecule."

Maddie's expression softened at Danny's explanation. "Danny, he's not going to hurt you."

"He might," Danny retorted. "I change in front of him, he thinks the evil Danny Phantom has overshadowed his son, and then I'm being chased around with a bazooka." Maddie didn't know wether to role her eyes at her son's wild explanation, or worry that he didn't feel safe in his own home.

"Tell you what," Maddie said eventually. "I'll bring him up into the kitchen, and all three of us will discuss this. I'll even do most of the talking if you want."

Danny was quick to agree to his mother's deal. He wasn't very skilled with words, and he didn't quite know how to break the news to his father. Frankly, he was flabbergasted he had been able to explain everything to his mother.

Mother and son entered the kitchen together, and Danny took a seat at the kitchen table as Maddie called for Jack to come upstairs.

"Jack, sweetie," Maddie said when all three of them were seated around the table. "I- we- wanted to discuss something with you." Jack nodded, indicating for her to continue.

"Do you remember the accident Danny got into about a year ago? With the ghost portal?"

"Yes…" Jack said, worry and confusion etching his voice.

Maddie looked at Danny, but Danny purposely looked down at his hands. He wanted his mother to do most of the talking. Heck, he wanted her to do all of it- even the part that included straight out saying that he was half ghost.

Maddie sighed and looked back to Jack. Danny was relieved when she kept talking. Maybe he wouldn't have to say anything after all.

"Well," Maddie started. "What happened was that Danny pressed the 'on' button which was installed on the inside of the portal. So, all the ecto-energy that forms the Ghost Zone not only blasted through the portal we drilled, but it also shocked Danny."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked. "He's fine. Isn't he? Has been for a year."

"Yes well, when that much ecto-energy hit Danny, it sort of fused, or intertwined with his DNA," Maddie explained, using one of the two theories Danny, Sam, and Tucker had come up with. Danny assumed she had gone with the one she found more likely; It did seem rather impossible to "half die". Ectoplasm infused DNA sounds much more probable, and much, much more scientific.

Jack stood up from his chair so suddenly it wobbled. "What?" he boomed. "Isn't that dangerous? Isn't that… harmful?" He looked toward his son, worry in his eyes. _Is that why Danny has been acting so off since the accident? _Jack wondered. _Is that why he hasn't really been himself since?_

Maddie bit her lip, then said, "It's not dangerous or harmful." Jack let out a sigh of relief and sunk back into his chair. "But there was a side effect."

That was Danny's cue, Danny knew that, but he stayed quiet hoping his mom would wrap this conversation up and place a nice neat bow on top.

"Danny," Maddie said firmly. Well, at least he didn't have to explain all the science mumbo-jumbo.

"Imhalfghost," he said, ripping the band aid off quickly. He said it quickly, but unfortunately, it was also impossible to comprehend.

"What?" Jack asked.

"I'm… I'm uh… I'm half ghost."

Jack stared blankly at Danny. "You're… a ghost?"

"Half ghost," Danny corrected half heartedly.

"Which one?" Jack asked. Gradually, he seemed to be becoming more and more interested.

"Danny Phantom," Danny whispered almost inaudibly.

Jack's jaw dropped to the floor. "You're… You're… You're _Phantom_?" he spluttered. "_You're Phantom_?"

"Um, yeah?" Danny said. He wasn't quite sure if Jack's disbelief was a good thing or a bad thing.

As the minutes passed, Danny realized that his dad's curiosity was definitely a good thing. He seemed generally interested in how Danny's powers worked, and both he and Maddie seemed truly proud of him for all the good things he had done for the town. After an hour or so, Jack seemed to have forgotten that only hours ago, he had despised Danny Phantom.

When he had finished discussing his half-ghost identity with his parents, Danny headed up to his room, started up his laptop, and called Sam and Tucker via video chat. They both answered almost immediately.

"Hey," Sam said. "How'd that doctors appointment go?"

Danny sighed. "I'm pretty sure the doctor thinks I'm a lunatic, but everything's good with my mom and dad."

"What'd you tell them?" Sam asked.

"The truth," Danny deadpanned.

Sam and Tucker's reactions were almost identical; their eyes widened to the size of saucers, and their mouths formed little 'o' shapes. After blinking a few times, Sam collected herself and changed her expression back to normal. Tucker, however, stayed with a his surprised look plastered to his face until Danny said, "Close your mouth. You'll catch flies."

"You seriously told them? Everything?" Tucker asked, ignoring Danny's remark.

Danny nodded. "Yeah," he said. "They took it okay, too. Said they were proud of me and all that. My dad was really interested in the science aspect of it. Made me transform for him about seven times in a row just so he could try to figure out how the ectoplasm covered my DNA or something. I had a hard time understanding them once they started using the big science-y words."

"Because ectoplasm and DNA are such hard to understand topics," Sam said sarcastically.

"Not those words," Danny replied, defending himself. "Other bigger, more fancy words." Sam and Tucker both laughed.

"I have a question," Tucker said suddenly.

"Yeah?" Danny said.

"Why'd you tell them now? I mean, they knew with the Reality Gauntlet incident, and you wiped their memories. I mean, if you really wanted to, you could've came up with an excuse about the doctors. But you told them. Why?"

Danny exhaled deeply and leaned back in his chair "The Reality Gauntlet thing... Well, I never told them. A news camera just caught me change back and they happened to be watching the news at the time. I guess I wanted to tell them on my own terms. And all the lies I was coming up with were really stupid. I don't really know why I told them. I just did..."

Later, after he hung up with Sam and Tucker, Danny flopped onto his bed, pulled out his phone, and sent a quick text to Jazz. It simply read "I told Mom and Dad." If Jazz came home from the library and found Danny and their parents discussing Danny's powers, she would be rather bewildered.

Danny exited out of his text messages, and began scrolling through his apps to find a game to play when a wispy blue mist escaped his mouth. He went ghost and was about to fly through the ceiling when he realized his parents now knew that he was Amity Park's local hero. Was he supposed to leave and hope his parent's didn't find his bedroom empty like he usually did, or was he supposed to idly mention he was going to fight a ghost as if he were telling them he was heading over to the mall?

He turned back to his human form, and headed downstairs and into the lab. "Mom, I'll be back in a little bit. There's a ghost, and, yeah…" he said lamely.

"Okay, sweetie," Maddie said, not even looking up from the invention she and Jack were working on.

"Go get 'em, Danny!" Jack exclaimed.

Danny cringed at his dad's response, and went ghost, still feeling quite odd doing it around his parents. He then went intangible and invisible, and flew through the roof.


	4. Get Down To Business

Danny flew through the roof of his home, turning tangible once he had fully emerged.

He looked around and immediately saw the ghost that had triggered his ghost sense. A ghost who looked simply like a giant ectoplasmic booger glided along the street, roaring at the cars in the street.

People were exiting their cars, leaving in them in the middle of the street, and running away from the living blob of ectoplasm. Pedestrians screamed, and mothers held their babies close to their chests.

"Look!" a young boy yelled. He pointed to where Danny was floating, an excited look on his face. "It's Danny Phantom!"

The bystanders cheered, relieved that their hero had arrived to take care of the the ghostly beast that had made it's way into the street. Danny smiled and gave the crowd a quick wave before flying toward to disgusting monster.

"Hey, Ugly! Over here!" Danny cried. The ghost turned around to face Danny, and snarled when he saw the ghost boy slotting oh-so-arrogantly next to him.

Danny, having battled this particular ghost many times, and having won each of those battles quite easily, felt confident. He punched the monster in the area of goop that resembled a face, and the monster howled. The howl then turned into a roar, and he swat at Danny.

"Hey!" Danny said. He quickly flew out of the way, narrowly avoiding being slapped by the ghost.

Danny shot a few ectoplasmic rays at the at the slimy, green ghost. Each time the ghost was hit by a ray, he cringed and howled, and took another swat at Danny. In Danny's experience, he had learned that the mountains of living ectoplasm looked quite scary, but were rather terrible fighters. The first time Danny fought one of the creatures, he had been quite overwhelmed by its size, but ended up beating it in less time than it took him to beat a lone ectopus.

The ectoplasmic rays seemed to only be making the beast agitated, not weaker. Deciding he needed to finish this up quickly so that people could resume using the street, Danny fired an ice ray, freezing the creature in its tracks.

The creature, while a terrible fighter, was admittedly rather strong, so Danny moved quickly, not wanting the creature to break through the ice, which would be quite easy on the hot summer day that it was.

"Say goodbye, Gruesome," Danny said with a cocky smile. He whipped out a Fenton thermos and sucked the monster into it. He quickly scanned the street, and when he saw the rather disgusting trail of slime the monster had left, he aimed his thermos at it, sucking it into the thermos as well.

He capped the thermos and smiled as the spectators on either side of the street began to cheer. "You're my hero!" many of the younger children called up to him. He smiled, waved, then flew higher up into the air, went invisible, then intangible, then flew through the roof of his house.

Once inside, Danny turned back to human, then strolled into the lab. His parents were still in their, bent over a table the contained various tools and materials, as well as notes, blue prints, and test tubes of ectoplasm.

"I'm back," Danny announced. His parents both greeted him, and he then walked to the ghost portal. He emptied the thermos's content into the Ghost Zone. He hadn't emptied it in a while, and he figured that after sucking that huge mountain of a ghost into the thermos, it had to have been full or almost full. And the last thing he needed was to be in the middle of a fight, attempt to use the thermos, and have it fail him.

He emptied the thermos, watching a variety of ghosts pour back into the Ghost Zone. He rolled his eyes when Skulker, without his suit, entered the green swirling mass, shouting, "You have not seen the last of me, ghost child!"

"That's what you say every time," Danny mumbled.

ooo

The doorbell rang and Danny sped downstairs to answer it. Sam and Tucker were coming over to help him train. Every so often the trio would meet at Danny's house and use the lab to train Danny so he could improve his powers. Usually they scheduled it for a time when Danny's parents would be out so they wouldn't walk in on them while he was still in ghost form. Now, though, Danny's parents knew about his powers, and he had even told them about the training.

Danny opened the door to find Sam and Tucker on the other side. Sam had a backpack slung over her shoulder, and Tucker held his PDA firmly in his hands.

"Ready to work your butt off?" Sam said.

The trio made their way downstairs to the lab. Immediately, Sam and Tucker began setting things up. They emptied Sam's backpack which contained a speed gun, the remote that controlled the training gear and courses Tucker had set up when they first started training, a manilla folder crammed with notes and statistics about Danny's powers, and a clipboard that had a thick pile of identical check lists attached.

The check lists listed each of Danny's powers. Each power had a square for a check mark, as well as a few blank lines for any notes. Sam had typed up the lists when they had first started training, and she had printed multiple copies. She did, however, have to alter the lists a few times when Danny gained a new power.

"Ready?" Tucker asked once they had everything ready.

Danny smiled and transformed. Black hair became white, blue eyes became green, the everyday outfit Danny wore changed into a jumpsuit with the famous insignia imprinted on the chest. "Ready," Danny confirmed.

ooo

Maddie sat on the couch in her living room, a novel in her hands. She usually enjoyed reading, but her mind kept drifting, and she found herself having to read the same paragraph over various times because she hadn't paid attention the first time she read it.

Giving up on reading for the moment, she placed a scrap of paper in the book to mark what page she had left off on, and looked at her daughter who sat across from her in an over stuffed arm chair.

Jazz sat with her legs criss cross in the chair, a psychology textbook balancing on her lap. She chewed on the eraser of a pencil as her eyes scanned the text. Every so often she would stumble across a key concept, and she would jot it down in the notebook that rested on the arm of her chair.

It had been quiet for a while, which was unusual in the Fenton household, but Jazz greatly appreciated it. It was usually a frustrating process to get homework done at her house what with her parents always working on their inventions, and her brother's too-loud video games. But today, it was quiet. Jack had stayed up all night working on a new invention, and decided to take a nap about a half hour ago. Danny's friends had come over and were down in the basement training which, surprisingly, wasn't as loud as Danny's video games were. Since Danny was using the lab, and Maddie didn't want to work on and inventions on the ground floor so as not to wake Jack, she had sat down with a novel.

Jazz had accepted this quiet with open arms, and took advantage of it to work on the weekend homework she had assigned herself. She had checked out a rather advanced book on psychology, and had promised herself that by the end of the weekend, she would have it read through, as well as notes written about each key concept in the book.

Jazz was rather focused on her self-assigned homework, but she still heard Maddie ask her, "Have you ever seen them train?"

Jazz looked up from her book and toward Maddie. "What?" she asked.

"Have you ever seen them train?" Maddie repeated. "Danny, Sam, and Tucker. Down in the lab."

"No," Jazz said, shaking her head. "I've known Danny's secret for a while, but I haven't exactly helped with the actual ghost fighting. I mostly just covered for him when he had to leave school, or miss dinner to deal with a ghost."

Maddie nodded. "How come you don't help with the actual fighting?" she asked. She had known her son's secret for nearly a week now, but there was still so much she didn't know.

Jazz shrugged. "It's not really my thing. I tried to help, when I first found out, but I ended up just getting in the way. I let three ghosts get away, let one evil ghost steal the ecto-covertor you and Dad had hooked up to the RV, and accidentally sucked Danny into a Fenton thermos."

"You trapped your brother in the Fenton thermos?" Maddie repeated through her peels of laughter.

"It wasn't my fault!" Jazz said defensively. "I slipped. I felt really bad, though. He was crammed in that thing for about six hours." Maddie laughed even harder.

Jazz scrunched her eyebrows together as Maddie laughed. "I'm sorry," Maddie said when her laughter died down and she saw the annoyed look on Jazz's face. "It's just so funny."

The two were quiet for a while and Jazz returned to her psychology book. She had only read a couple paragraphs, however, when Maddie said, "So, do you know what they do when they train?"

"No," Jazz said, scribbling something down in her notebook. "If you're so curious, why don't you just go down there and watch?" she suggested.

"You don't think they'll mind?" Maddie said warily. She could tell her son was still rather uncomfortable transforming and using his powers around her and Jack. She couldn't blame him, though. She was still slightly uncomfortable seeing Danny use his powers. His transformations were always odd to watch; Seeing her son turn into the town's hero was still foreign to her. And it was quite strange seeing her son use his powers so… Naturally. It especially made her wonder when she noticed her shy and awkward Danny become arrogant and witty when he changed into his ghost form.

Jazz shrugged. "I don't know. If you think he will, though, just stand at the bottom of the stairs and watch. I doubt they'll see you."

Maddie decided to take her daughter's advice and walked to down the stairs that led to the lab, stopping on the last one. She smiled when she saw her son, in ghost form, floating eight feet in the air.

"Okay, hot-shot," Sam said to Danny. "Let's ramp it up." She pushed a button on the remote she held in her hands. Rings came down from the ceiling, and dart guns popped out from the walls. Maddie's eyebrows rose. _Have they built this all by their selves?_ she wondered. She and Jack hadn't built any part of the obstacle course that lay before her.

Danny responded to the obstacles immediately. He grabbed onto one of the rings and swung himself through, sent himself flying through the next one. He grabbed the rim of the third ring and flipped through it, then sailed through the last circle.

Next came the dart guns. Maddie watched intently as her son dodged the rounds of dart fired at him. He flew out of the way of most of the groups of darts, narrowly avoiding some. Maddie's eyes widened as a rather large, final group of darts flew toward Danny's back. He turned around, and turned himself intangible just before the darts hit him.

Tucker took the remote from Sam and hit another button. Metal rods with cardboard cutouts of ghosts attached to them jutted out of the ground. Maddie smiled and rolled her eyes slightly when another cardboard cutout popped out of the ground, this one designed to look like an angry Jazz rather than a ghost.

Danny blasted ectoplasmic rays and ice rays at each one of the ghost cutouts, skipping over the Jazz cutout. Then, with a shrug and a devilish smile, Danny shot another ecto-ray at the Jazz cutout. This made Maddie giggle, but she kept quiet, not wanting to disturb the trio's process.

Next, metal walls emerged from the ground. Danny flew down to their level, the floated intangibly through each one, backwards, and with his hands behind his head and legs crossed, as if he was relaxing on a lounge chair.

After floating through the last metal barrier, he went tangible once more and gave Tucker and Sam a thumbs up and a rather haughty smile. But, as he smiled at them, he was still floating backwards. He crashed into the wall of the lab and fell rather unceremoniously to the ground. At this, Maddie burst out laughing.

All three heads turned toward her. "Mom?" Danny asked. "What are you doing down here?"

Maddie shrugged slightly with one shoulder and said, "I was curious." She paused then looked around at the obstacles throughout the room. "Did you three build this yourselves?"

Sam nodded. "We kind of, er, _borrowed_ some of your equipment and materials you had in the lab." Maddie nodded and looked at the dart guns still protruding from the wall. There was and incident last year when Jack had claimed to have finished twelve working dart guns, all of which mysteriously disappeared the next day.

"Danny and I did most of the actual constructing, but the wiring and technology aspect was all Tucker. He synced the things to a remote so we could hide all this stuff. It would be kind of weird if you and Mr. Fenton came down to the lab one day and suddenly an entire obstacle course dominated the room."

"It's impressive," Maddie said. "How long did it take you to build all this?"

Sam puckered her lips and tilted her head to the side. "I don't know," she said. "We kind of gradually added to it as the training became harder, and Danny became more skilled with his powers. When we first started, he couldn't even float through all the walls intangibly. He would accidentally turn tangible and slam into one of the walls."

"Hey!" Danny said. "That only happened four times."

"Yeah," Tucker agreed. "But you've slammed into that wall," he pointed to the wall of the lab Danny had crashed into after floating through the barriers, "about four _hundred _times."

Danny was about to retort when the misty blue breath that was his ghost sense floated out of his mouth. "I'll be right back," he said with a sigh.

"You want us to help you?" Sam asked.

Danny shook his head. "Nah, it's okay. I don't think it'll be anything too bad." And with that he flew out of the room.

While Danny was gone, Maddie asked Sam and Tucker a few more questions about Danny's training, as well as how the three of them patrolled. There was a comfortable atmosphere in the room as Sam and Tucker explained everything to Maddie.

But then, Danny flew back into the room. He had been gone no more than ten minutes, but there were scratches on his cheeks, and the shoulder of one of his sleeves had been burnt away revealing fleshy, bright red burnt skin.

"Guys," Danny said. "I actually do need your help. Jazz, too. And dad."


End file.
